A Heuristic Approach to the Railroad Track Maintenance Scheduling Problem

Abstract: Every year, billions of dollars are spent on rail track maintenance to keep the serviceability of the railroad network. These maintenance projects (of different types) must be performed by suitable maintenance teams within a planning horizon. This article presents a time‐space network model to solve the track maintenance scheduling problem (TMSP). The objective is to minimize the total travel costs of the maintenance teams as well as the impact of maintenance projects on railroad operation, which are formulated by three types of side constraints: mutually exclusive, time window, and precedence constraints. An iterative heuristic solution approach is proposed to solve the large‐scale TMSP model with a large number of side constraints. The proposed model and solution approach are applied to a large‐scale real‐world problem. Compared to the current industry practice the model outcome eliminated all hard side‐constraint violations and reduced the total objective value (travel costs and soft side‐constraint violation penalties) by 66.8%.     

A Voltage Phasor Based Fault-classification Method for Phasor Measurement Unit Only State Estimator Output

Abstract—This article presents a fault-classification method for transmission lines based on voltage phasors using classification and regression trees. The proposed method is intended to aid system operators in understanding the outputs of a phasor measurement unit only state estimator. Faults are classified into four categories when the estimator is positive sequence and into ten categories when the estimator is three phase. The fault data are generated in PowerWorld® (PowerWorld Corporation, Champaign, IL, USA) and DSA Tools® (Powertech Labs Inc., Surrey, British Columbia, Canada). The pre-fault state consists of a variety of operating conditions and loading angles of faulted lines. The fault condition comprises different fault types, fault locations, fault impedances, and fault incidence angles. Fault classification is done using MATLAB® (The MathWorks, Natick, Massachusetts, USA).The approach is successfully tested on the IEEE-118 bus system. The results demonstrate that the technique developed here is effective and robust, irrespective of the pre-fault and fault conditions.     

Dielectric and conducting behavior of pyrene functionalized PANI/P(VDF‐co‐HFP) blend

Herein, we present the dielectric and electrical conductivity properties of the partially miscible polymer blend prepared using pyrene functionalized polyaniline (pf‐PANI) and poly(vinylidene fluoride‐co‐hexafluoro propylene) (PVDF‐co‐HFP). The blend mostly retains the fluorescent nature of pf‐PANI as well as can be moldable and possesses good damping property. The dielectric properties have been investigated as a function of temperature at three different frequencies and the plausible origin of polarization responsible for dielectric behavior in this blend has been identified. The experimental results of dielectric measurements are compared with theoretical models and discussed. The surface morphology of the samples has been examined with a scanning electron microscope. The electrical conductivity has also been studied as a function of temperature and explained in terms of hopping of charge carriers/interconnected networks. The combined dielectric and conductivity results together with scanning electron microscope micrographs, reveal that there is hindrance to achieve percolation threshold even after pf‐PANI addition of 57 vol % and subsequent thermal treatment. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 44077.     

Effect of Ionic Liquids on Surface and Aggregation Properties of Non-ionic Surfactant Triton™ X-100 in Aqueous Media

The effect of the hydrophilic ionic liquids (ILs) 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium bromide [bdmim][Br] and 1-hexyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium bromide [hdmim][Br] on the aggregation and surface active behaviour of the non-ionic surfactant Triton? X-100 (TX-100) was studied in aqueous media. Several aggregation properties of TX-100 + IL/water systems, such as critical micelle concentration (CMC), surface active parameters, aggregation number (N _agg) and aggregate size, were determined by surface tension, fluorescence and dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques. It was found that the average micellar size and aggregation number decrease, whereas the CMC increases with increasing concentration of ILs. Interestingly, the CMC value of TX-100 is reduced slightly below 0.5 wt% of both the ILs in the medium. At higher wt% of IL in the system the CMC increases. It was demonstrated that ILs [bdmim][Br] and [hdmim][Br] can be judiciously used at different wt% for modifying the physico-chemical properties of TX-100.